This week's highlighted research:
Yankee Group. "FMC offers enterprises a range of paths to corporate objectives."
Insight Research. "Fixed mobile convergence: Single phone solutions for wireless, wireline, and VoIP convergence 2005-2010."
Pyramid Research. "Fixed-mobile convergence: Creating value with successful business models."
Fixed mobile convergence makes perfect sense. Why shouldn't we have a single phone number that follows us wherever we go? There is no technological barrier that requires us to have two separate phone services, one landline and one wireless, although the companies that sell landline phone service (increasingly a money-losing proposition) stand to lose out unless they get on the stick pretty quickly about changing the nature of what they offer.
It's inevitable that one day in the future this will take place. Everyone will have a landline phone in the house, and a mobile for on the road, and when someone makes a call, both lines will ring. A key driver of fixed-mobile, according to Yankee Group's report, is the promise of IP-supported applications. And although fixed-mobile will ultimately provide a cost advantage to those who use it, cost is not the key driver; rather, fixed-mobile is more about implementing the right solution and gaining additional business services. Today, much of the fixed-mobile convergence push is centered around the consumer market, but Yankee's report predicts that enterprise fixed-mobile is on the horizon.
For enterprise users for example, fixed-mobile will present a single device that will include integrated PBX functionality. Calls could be forwarded to you whether you are in the office or not. Speaking as a one-time corporate employee who enjoyed two-hour lunches occasionally, I'm not so sure I would like this option, but from a management perspective it does present an obvious efficiency. On second thought, it would have allowed me to answer my extension while at the pub and pretending to be at my desk, so it may not be so bad after all.
Insight Research's report notes that so far, the situation is mostly one-way, and consumers that want the mobility offered by fixed-mobile have instead opted to make their wireless their only phone service. However, the eventual fixed-mobile acceptance throughout both consumer and business circles will have a big impact on the telecom industry, and Insight Research looks at the potential impact on wireline carriers and long distance providers, as well as other players such as broadband ISPs, wireless carriers, and handset vendors.
Pyramid Research acknowledges the fact that the hype surrounding fixed-mobile outpaces the reality, but fixed-mobile is nonetheless starting to take shape. There are already prototype services in Europe and Asia, and the integration of networks and platforms around IP will lead to convergence. Pyramid's report calls fixed-mobile both a threat and an opportunity, and indeed it is both, depending on where in the industry you sit. Some service providers will gain new revenue streams and increase their market share, while others will lose customers if they too, do not start offering fixed-mobile service.
